Almost 11,000 gold in their favor wasn’t enough to save Golden Guardians to start week six of the 2022 LCS Spring Split today. Despite amassing a massive lead over 100 Thieves, Golden Guardians once again fumbled their attempts to close out the game, giving 100T the few moments they needed to swing the trajectory in their favor.
Golden Guardians appeared much more organized in their first match of the week following their previous 0-2 weekend, affording them a small but manageable lead in the early game against the reigning LCS champions. Pridestalker’s debut performance on Nocturne in the LCS, accompanied by the roaming Ablazeolive and Olleh, let Golden Guardians secure pressure on both sides of the river, taking advantage of 100T’s eagerness to fight.
Licorice’s poke as Gnar put Ssumday incredibly behind in CS, forcing 100T to switch their top and bot lanes early on in an attempt to funnel gold into one of the most pivotal members of their team. Within 25 minutes, Licorice was more than capable of winning one-vs-two battles against any member of 100T that entered his field of vision, while Pridestalker and Ablazeolive ensured the damage output remained high—thus giving Golden Guardians an almost 8,000 gold lead.
Unfortunately for Golden Guardians, they again failed to maintain their lead. Closer securing the Cloud Soul for 100T with a single Q over the pit’s walls sparked a major momentum shift in their favor, while the members of Golden Guardians, uncharacteristic of what had given them such a big lead, got caught out on the wrong side of the map. With Lost and Huhi at the helm, 100T took advantage of the Golden Guardians squad in disarray, bringing themselves to fourth place in the LCS.
This game heavily resembled the bout between G2 Esports and Misfits during week seven of this year’s LEC Spring Split, where G2 fumbled their almost-13,000 gold lead and let Misfits scale to a game-winning position. Misfits used that victory to propel them to third place over G2, which quite possibly may be the same fate for 100T as the final two weeks of the LCS Spring Split approach.
100T now stand in fourth place of the LCS, trailing Team Liquid, Cloud9, and FlyQuest. The reigning LCS champions still have time to catch up to the top of the competition, though they must focus heavily on winning the remaining six games—starting with tomorrow’s bout against FlyQuest, who bested 100T earlier in the split to propel their momentum into becoming one of the strongest teams in the LCS.
Golden Guardians add another defeat to their losing streak, though are not yet at the bottom of the standings. They’ll look to bounce back in the final weeks starting with tomorrow’s match against CLG.
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